leggo



(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1. W. A. LEGGO.

AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPHY. I No. 372,475. Patented Nov. 1, 1887.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. W. A. LEGGO.

AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPHY.

No. 372,475. Patented Nov. 1, 1887.

(No Model.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 3,

W. A. LEGGO.

AUTOMATIC TBLEGRAPHY.

Patented Nov. 1, 1887.

UNrTnn STATES PATENT WILLIAM AUGUSTUS LEGGO, OF MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, ASSIGNOR TO JACKSON RAE AND JAMES ORADOCK SIMPSON, BOTH OF SAME PLACE.

AUTOMATIC TELEGRAPHY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 372,475, dated November 1, 18 7.

Application filed June 25, 1886. Serial No. 206,262.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS LEGGO, of the city of Montreal, in the district of Montreal and Province of Quebec, Canada, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Automatic Telegraphy, and in the apparatus used therefor; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention has reference to the art of transmitting by telegraphy prepared messages, so as to be able to send in any given space of time agreatly-increased numberof words, and comprises not only new means of transmitting such messages, but also improvements in the apparatus which will insure the accuracy and elearness of messages sent at a high rate of speed.

The invention may be thus briefly described: I may premise that in this case, as in all other automatic telegraphy, the messages aresent by the contact of the transmitting-styluses alternately with the conductingsurface of the revolving cylinder and the insulated spaces marked upon it, and that these may be worked either positively or negatively, as desired. The insulated lines forming negative or 'positive of the message or messages to be sent are placed upon the surface of a cylinder, as has been already done; but in my instrument the pen by which the signs or symbols are marked on the surface of such roller is during the operation of noting down such message always in contact with the cylinder, being moved from side to side by ordinary or special means for the purpose, so as to describe a continuous message-line. The tablets carrying the pen by which the message is prepared and the styluses through which the message is conveyed to the dist-ant station are mounted above a screw-shaft, to which either may be attached at will, the motion of the cylinder being timed to suit the preparation and transmission of the message. To insure the rotation at the same rate of speed of the cylinder and screwshaft above mentioned, and thereby obviate the necessity of frequently adjusting the transmitting-stylus to the path of the pen, I mount upon the screw-shaft and the cylinder-shaft similar gears, between which is an idle-wheel intermeshing with both.

(N0 model.)

The continuous messageline above mentionedis the positive or negative of the message to be transmitted, and is formed of an inkcapable of breaking the current between 5 the stylus and cylinder, such ink being preferably composed of commercial mucilage or gum-arabic diluted and colored.

For transmitting messages I may employ two batteries, one sending to linea plus (-I-) and 6 J the other a minus current. In this case the transmitting-roller is connected to earth and one of these batteries interposed between each stylus and the line,it being evident that while one stylus is making electrical contact with the rotating roller, thus sending acurrent, either plus or minus, to line, the contact of the other is broken by the insulatingink, and that when the positions, as regards the message of the styluses, are reversed, an alternating current of different polarity will be sent to line. This arrangement of the two batteries may be employed when it is desired to repeat or retransmit messages at adistant station, the line being then preferably taken 7 through the magnet of arelay to earth and the action of such magnet upon its armature putting into circuita local battery, which will opcrate, as before described, to work a pen for transcribing a message onto the cylinder.

I propose, also, to utilize secondary or induced currents for conveying a message, in which case only a single stylus, passing over either the negative or positive section of the prepared message, may be used. In this case the local battery-circuit passes from the battery,through the primary wire of an induction or Ituhmkorft coil and transmitting-cylindcr, back to battery, and the secondary circuit is the line-circuit taken to the earth at one end and through the recording-instrumcnt to earth at the other.

The secondary current can also be utilized to operate a polarized relay and work, by means of a local battery at a farstatiomthe pen 5 for retransmission, as before described.

Instead of the ordinary key and circuitbreaker, I may in some instances make use of the key-board which I have invented, and which consists in a series of disks,upon which [00 are marked in metal the several signs to be noted on the cylinder, these disks being mounted on keys, the depression of any of which will bring its disk in contact with a continuously-revolving roller, by which it is partially rotated and the circuit through the battery and the apparatus to be worked by the key completed.

For full comprehension, however, of myinvention, reference must be had to the annexed drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a side view of pen and operating mechanism; Fig. 2, a plan of same; Fig. 3, details of pen; Fig. 4:, a side view showing apparatus for regulating motion of screw-shaft; Fig. 5, a view of line givingboth negative and positive of message; Fig. 6, a diagram showing arrangement when two batteries are used; Fig. 7, a side view, and Fig. 8 a plan, of two styluses; Fig. 9, a diagram of apparatus for repeating message; Fig. 10, a diagram showing the working by secondary currents, and Fig. 11 a side view of one key of key-board.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

A is the rotating cylinder, upon which the message is marked, of any desired construction, and mounted on shaft A, carried in suitable frame, in which is also set the screw-shaft B and slide B, carrying the tablets O and D, on the former of which are mounted the marking-pen and its operating mechanism and on the latter the stylus or styluses.

E is the pen-tube with nib E split or slotted, as shown in Fig. 3, with two slits longitudinally of the pen-tube, and at the bottom another across these, transversely to the tube, so as to work with less ink. This tube E is attached by a flexible connection, E to the siphon E", communicating with the ink fountain or reservoir arranged to be raised or lowered at will. The pen-tube E is secured to the pen-holder e, which is carried on a strong spring, (2, from the tablet C, and has secured to it in front a spring, e, turned up at the end, in which the pentube lies.

F is an electro-magnet, charged by any suitable battery and key, worked by the operator; and F, the armature, secured to the side of the pen-holder e, F being a retractile spring holding the pen-holder and pen when not acted upon by the elcctro-magnet, and F F stops between which the pen and holder play.

By the arrangement above described the pen, continuously fed from the fountain, is kept in constant contact with the surface of the cylinder A, and describes,in insulating-ink, a line which can be used either as the positive or negative of a message, such line being, by the combined and compound movement of the cylinder rotating and pen traveling across its surface, a spiral, but a spiral interrupted and broken by the action of the electro-magnet, although the continuity of the line is preserved by the oblique connections, all as shown at G G, Fig. 5. When the line is used negatively, the metal of the cylinder constitutes the positive of the message, and conversely.

By the construction and arrangement just described the wear and tear of the pen arising from intermittent contact with the cylinder when an up and-down motion is adopted are materially lessened, and there is no chance of the pen-point clogging with ink. Any kind of message may be marked on the cylinder; but Iprefcr to use the code for which I am applying for a patentby petition of even date herewith.

On the end of the screw-shaft B is a gearwheel, I), a similar wheel, a, being mounted on the end of the cylinder-shaft A. Between these and intermeshing with both, so as to communicate the motion of A to B, is an idlewheel, a. By this means I secure the rotation at an even rate of speed of the cylinder and screw-shaft and the accuracy of the movement of the transmitting'stylus over the path of the pen. The styluscs H H will be of any approved construction and provided with suitable devices for bringing them into contact with the cylinderA and detaching them therefrom, each stylus following a direct and uninterruptedspiral path composed of alternate contacts and insulations. \Vith these two styluscs I may use, as shown. in Fig. 6, two

structed for repeating messages at any station.

intermediate between the station from which the message is dispatched and that at which it is to be received.

M is a relay, either polarized or ordinary, through the magnet of which the line-current passes to earth. N- is a local battery put in circuit, by means of the armature of such relaymagnet,with the line 0, the current of which will operate a pen mechanism similar to that already described, for the purpose of transcribing on the cylinder at the intermediate station the message to be forwarded.

Some such device as the above will be found absolutely essential when messages are to be retransmitted, unless very heavy batterypower be used, in which case the main line L may be taken, as shown by the dotted lines, directly to the electro-magnet of the pen apparatus at the retransmitting station.

The method by which Ipropose to utilize, practically, secondary or induced currents to transmit messages in automatic telegraphy is is at the transmitting-station taken at one end to earth and at the other to line passing at the receiving station through the recording-instrument and paper also to earth. This secondary or induced current may also be used to operate the relay just described and shown in Fig. 9.

I prefer to use at the rcceivingstation the ordinary chemical paper properly carried over contact plates through which the current passes to earth, the recording-instrument be- 111g any suitable point.

In Fig. 11 is shown one of the keys of my improved key-board. The front part of the key proper is formed as shown at It and of non-conducting material, the rear end of two strips, R, of brass or like metal,carried by the spring S, secured to strip S, connected by line with one pole of battery Z, the other pole of which is connected with a freely-revolving metal roller, T, the length of the key-board. In the strips It are formed bearings for the metal spindle u of the disk U, in the periphery of which is set the sign V, formed of a metal segment communicating with spindle u, and having blocks of non-conducting material let into it so as to give the necessary spacesin the letter. The disk U is cut away, as shown at U, and is secured to the frame by a retractile spring, XV, the situation of this cutout being fixed by the length of the sign forming the letter. \Vhen the operator depresses the key, the disk U is brought into contact at an insulated point of its periphcr i with the roller T, which rotates it, and as each sign forming the letter comes in contact with the roller T the battery circuit is completed through the spindleu and a current sent either to the electro-magnet Operating the pen n1cchanisni or to a distant station. The dropping of the key at the cut-out U will warn the opcrator of the completion of the letter, and on the key being released the retraetile spring \V will restore the parts to their normal position. Stops arranged in the side of the disk U and in the strips It determine the normal position of the disk with relation to the continuously revolving cylinder.

It must be understood that the improvements herein described can be used in connection with all or any of the known devices for transmitting telegraphic messages automatically, and that ordinary tclegraphy and telephony may be used as adjuncts thereto for the purposes ofswitching, signaling, and con veying messages, and that more than one instrument can be used in a station.

I am aware that the pen marking continuously upon paper wrapped upon a cylinder is not new, and that, as in the British Patent No. 2,18; of lSofl thei-e has been shown a cylinder adapted to carry paper, and a pen carried upon a laterally-moving frame or table moving in unison with the cylinder, said pen having intermittent lateral movement caused by an electro-magnet; and I have limited my claims, in view of the state of the art, accordingly.

. XVhat I claim is as follows:

1. In an automatic telegraph apparatus, the pen slitted verticallyand longitudinally along the bottom, as and for the purposes described.

2. In combination, a rotary transmitting cylinderin circuit, as dcscribcd,a pen mounted upon a tablet and arranged to turn laterally thereon, a transmittingstylus, also mounted on a tablet, the tablets carrying the pen and stylus being both fitted to a screw mechanism for giving them lateral movement, an electromagnet with its armature connected to the pen, and connections with the line-circuit for the stylus, the parts being constructed and arranged to operate substantially as described.

3. In combination, a rotary transmittingcylinder with telegraphic connections, as de scribed, a pen and a transmitting stylus adapted to bear upon the periphery of said cylinder, mechanism for giving said pen and stylus lateral motion in relation to the cylinder, and an electromagnet for giving the pen intermittent lateral motion upon its lateral moving support, substantially as described.

4. In combination, a rotary transmittingcylinder with its telegraphic connections, substantially as described, a pen and stylus carried on the screw-shaft and arranged to bear on the surface of said cylinder, mechanism for holding the pen normally in line, an electromagnet for giving it limited lateral movement on its support, and agear connecting the screwshaft and the shaft of said cylinder, as hereinbcfore explained.

5. In an automatic telegraphic system, a rotary transmitting cylinder and styluses arranged to bear thereon, line-batteries of dif ferent polarity located between the respective styluscs and the line, and rotary cylinders 10- eated at an intermediate station, provided with a pen and ink-supply apparatus,said pen being arranged to bear on the periphery of the said cylinder and provided with a yielding lHCCll anism for holding it normally in line, in corn bination with an electro-magnet and its armature attached to the pen on the cylinder located at said intermediate station, said electromagnet being located in the main or local battery circuit, substantially as described.

6. A transmitting-cylinder in circuit, as described, a slide carried by a screw connected to the transmitting-cylinderand driven therewith, a pen carried with its fountain on a suit able tablet and adapted to turn laterally thereon, an electromagnct, also carried 011 said tablet, for moving the pen laterally, a stylus with its electrical connections mounted on a suitable tablet, both tablets being constructed and arranged to fit the slide, whereby either may be used with the same transmitting-cylinder and the message traced on said cylinder and the stylus used thereon, substantially as described.

IVILLIA M AUGUSTUS LEGGO.

lVitnesses:

Fans. HY. REYNoLDs, OWEN W. Evans. 

